TAINTED {akira x reader x ryo}

II. white cage

✶

She was petrified in fear. Her mouth was agape, but she closed it without uttering a single sound. 

Her heart was racing a mile per hour. 

"P...Please..." She mumbled, unable to find her voice and scream. Tears started sprinkling on the corner of her eyes at realizing she had no way to escape. "Please don't hurt me." 

She was panicking, but she thought remaining calm was the best course of action. Maybe if she didn't resist, he wouldn't hurt her as much.

"Don't be afraid," the blonde boy spoke calmly. "Someone hit you with a bottle and you passed out, so I brought you with me." He said as he slowly approached her. "You're gonna be okay, just don't touch the bandage on your head." Standing next to the bed, he stretched his hand at her and gave her a light smile. "I'm Asuka Ryo."

She sat, slowly, scanning the room.

There were many questions she wanted to ask but didn't know where to start.

She accepted the handshake with her free hand, and now that he was up close, she finally had the chance to study his delicate features. 

He was absolutely beautiful.

.

"D... Demons?"

Instead of explaining why she was handcuffed, Ryo – who seemed like a rather peculiar boy – started by saying that demons were, in fact, real. According to him, they had always existed, even before humans did. All of it sounded chimerical, almost like the storyline of a cheesy horror movie, so naturally, she doubted the veracity of his words— until she remembered that she did, in fact, see people murdering each other in cold blood.

"Yes." Ryo placed his laptop on her lap, and proceeded to play one of the videos he had filmed that night. 

"Asuka-kun..." Her eyes widened in horror at what she was seeing, her voice cracking in fear. "T...This..."

Not only people had started killing each other— they had also transformed into morbid creatures that were out of this world, monsters that had lost their humanity. Her entire body trembled, tears streaming down her face as she saw her friends being dismembered in the most brutal ways.

"Devils have no bodies of their own, they need to merge with other beings in order to exist," Ryo explained, closing the laptop. "I'm currently researching that ability of theirs."

Rubbing away her tears, she unconsciously gave him a look of disbelief. 

"I might seem young but I'm a professor at the States," he chuckled, once again replying the questions on her mind. It seemed like he could read her as an open book.

"Why are you telling me this...?" she asked, still digesting everything she'd seen and heard. She also wondered why he'd saved her; something in her gut was telling her it hadn't been due to the goodness of his heart.

"Because I need your help."

She stared at him, eyes wide in confusion.

"I had an hypothesis," Ryo explained, "if we resist the devil's will, it's possible to gain its power while keeping our human heart. A fellow professor tried to prove that with his own body but he failed, but now I know for a fact it's possible," he continued, placing a hand on the laptop that was still on her lap, "I need to prove it and warn everyone. That's my mission."

"But... but why would you need..." she trailed off, her mind putting two and two together. Once again, she was at loss of words, and much to her horror, he confirmed her worst fear right before she could ask—

"Someone with the body of a devil but the heart of a human..." he said, "You're just what I was looking for."